The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives is devising six operating plans to curb the problem of illegal fishery, as the deadline of a possible European Union (EU) ban on Thai fishery products looms.
The European Union will be yellow-carding Thailand in February because of the country’s non-compliance with EU regulations on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, reported Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Petipong Pungbun Na Ayudhya.
The minister said Thailand is being given six months to resolve the discrepancies, where failure to do so would result in a ban on Thai fishery exports to the EU, worth roughly 30 billion baht per year.
Mr. Petipong indicated the six operating plans will address the issues of fishing vessels registration and fishing activity licensing, monitoring of fishing activities, vessel position tracking system, improvement of back-tracing system, improvement of fishery laws and the making of a national-level plan for the prevention and eradication of IUU fishing.
The said operating plans will effect Thai fishing vessels in Thai waters as well as elsewhere.
